The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959 film)
- Debra Paget: temple dancer Seetha
- Paul Hubschmid: engineer Harald Berger
- Claus Holm: Dr. Walter Rhode, Berger's chief
- Sabine Bethmann: Irene, his wife
- Walther Reyer: Prince Chandra
- Luciana Paluzzi: Bharani, Seethas servant
- René Deltgen: Prince Ramigani
- Jochen Brockmann: Prince Padhu
- Valéry Inkijinoff: High Priest Yama
- Richard Lauffen: Bhowana
- Jochen Blume: Asagara
The Tiger of Eschnapur is a German -Italian- French film directed by Fritz Lang from the year 1958. It is a heavily modified remake of the two-part silent film classic The Indian Tomb dating from 1921 and the film The Tiger of Eschnapur from the year 1938. premiere was on January 21, 1959 in Hanover at the Palace Theatre. In March of the same year appeared the sequel The Indian Tomb.
Action
The German engineer Harald Berger saves on his way to the temple dancer Seetha Eschnapur from a dangerous tiger. In Eschnapur where Berger is supposed to work, there is Prince Chandra, the Berger an emerald ring bestows upon his arrival because he saved the dancer. But Berger has fallen in love with Seetha and also found out that she has European parents.
Seetha is dancing in front of the prince who marry and want to do so for new Maharani. This displeases Padhu prince, the brother of the late Maharani. Prince Ramigani, Chandra's half-brother, secretly hopes in the event of such a marriage in addition to the indignation of the priesthood, because he liked even want to power.
Padhu had kidnapped Seetha, but is exempt from Chandra. Berger visited them secretly in the Lake Palace, which, however, Chandra learns. Although Ramigani can kill a Hard insidious Seethas servant Bharani, Chandra, Prince can give as an observer of a renewed meeting of Berger Seetha with certainty that the two have a relationship with each other.
He throws the Berger now trapped tigers to devour before, but Berger can defeat the tiger. Together with Seetha, he escapes from the palace of the Maharaja. His boss and brother Dr. Rhode, who has arrived with his wife Irene in Chandra Palace, it no longer applies to. Instead Rhode receives from the Maharajah commissioned to build a tomb, because the woman he loved, had betrayed him.
Berger and Seetha are on the run from the Hetzkommando that Chandra has sent after them. You get into a sandstorm and remain motionless.
Background
Fritz Lang returned from America back in 1957 and received by the producer Artur Brauner offering a remake of The Indian Tomb from the year 1921. Had long time already written the script, the director, however, had to leave Joe May.
The plot of the new film does not have much in common with the classic 1921. The exterior shots were filmed from October to November 1958 in the state of Rajasthan in India.
Reviews
- Heyne Movie Encyclopedia (1995 ): " Fritz Lang's colorful remake of the film of Joe May from 1938 is an adventurous and romantic tale, dream theater with bizarre undertones. However, to limp for a 'real long '. "
- Lexicon of international film: " ... naively romantic tale and lavishly configured adventure extravaganza in beautiful colors and worn rhythm. Especially the pale, often unintentionally comical actor and the concessions to the trivial romance in West German cinema of the 50s make the film at best reach the level of an entertaining showpiece. "
- Adolf Meier Heinzl and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon " Movies on TV " ( Extended edition ). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3, p 817: "Exotic Adventure in terrific amenities - Trivial kitschy romance in the style of the fifties, not to compare with Lang's earlier masterpieces. " ( Score: 2 stars = average )